COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio kept its No. 4 ranking for the strength of its biotechnology industry in Business Facilities magazine’s annual list, partly because of continued investments by Ohio Third Frontier, according to BioOhio, the state’s bioscience development organization.
The biotech sector has cemented its status as a crucial building block for future growth, so it is being protected in most states from budget cuts, according to Business Facilities. Products produced by the sector — from genetically tailored drugs that “deliver” themselves, to sophisticated defenses against bioterror — rapidly are moving from laboratories to the commercial sector, the magazine said.
“That is certainly true in the State of Ohio,” said Tony Dennis, president and chief executive of Ohio’s develoment organization, in a written statement. “Third Frontier Project investments in innovation and technology, especially in the biosciences, really have catalyzed growth in both public and private sectors of our state’s emerging industries.”
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Ohio Third Frontier is the $1.6 billion, 10-year effort to develop the state’s economy by investing in the developers of technologies and the companies that make them. Last month, an independent study of Third Frontier in its first seven years concluded the project has had an economic impact of $6.6 billion on the state, creating 41,300 jobs. Third Frontier sunsets in 2012. Taxpayers are expected to be asked to renew the project with a bond issue in the May 2010 election.
Ohio ascended to No. 4 last year after Business Facilities overhauled its ranking methodology to assign states proper credit for its biotech development initiatives. “We identified more than 20 key criteria that have been applied to rank overall biotechnology strength,” according to the magazine. Those criteria include the amount of state research and development funding and venture capital investments; biotech job concentrations; biotech tax exemptions; number of biotech facilities; biotech patents generated; university grant funding; and bioscience higher education degrees, among other factors.
Biotechnology is growing in Ohio. The most recent Ohio Bioscience Growth Report, published last winter by BioOhio, cites more than 1,100 bioscience-related organizations operating in the state, Dennis said. From 2004 to 2008, an average of 70 new bioscience companies began operations in the satate each year. In connection with the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Centerin Cleveland, BioOhio last month published an updated industry directoryof more than 2,600 locations that are part of the bioscience supply chain in the state, with 1,900 different companies in that chain.
Ohio biotech companies also have been attracting their share of venture capital. In the first half of 2009, BioEnterprise, the Northeast Ohio affiliate of BioOhio, reported that Ohio received the second-largest amount of venture capital investing — $86.9 million (pdf) — among 10 Midwestern states and one region. In May, the Biotechnology Industry Organization and Battelle (pdf) placed Ohio among the top eight states in middle and high school bioscience education quality.
